A PARENT GIVES HIS SON SEVERAL WORDS OF INDISPENSABLE ADVICE

Your official speaker will exhort you to climb every mountain and follow your passion. Your paternal speaker suggests that you climb every other mountain and keep your shirt on. But he does have a few thoughts to offer, culled from half a century of immeasurable wisdom. They should just about cover the page.

Do your own laundry. Your college will undoubtedly provide some easy pickup service, but my advice is, do the things yourself. The generation that runs the country now grew up leaving trash in the streets for others to haul away. If you take care of your own mess,...